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You are here >1Up Info > Wildlife, Animals, and Plants > Plant Species > Shrub > Species: Arctostaphylos glauca | Bigberry Manzanita
 

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BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

SPECIES: Arctostaphylos glauca | Bigberry Manzanita
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : Bigberry manzanita is a native, evergreen, sclerophyllous shrub 3.3 to 19.8 feet (1-6 m) in height [39]. In coastal regions plants are upright, sometimes arborescent, with a rounded to irregular crown. Both varieties display this growth form. On desert borders plants are low, compact, and spreading; this is the habit of A. glauca forma eremicola [39,52]. Bigberry manzanita is distinguished from other manzanitas by its large, viscid fruits containing three to six nutlets fused to form a single large stone [26,52]. Unlike some manzanitas, this species does not have a lignotuber [23]. It is shallow-rooted [36]. The root habit is radially spreading, with coarse lateral roots exceeding the length of vertical roots [33]. Bigberry manzanita can live more than 100 years [30]. RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : Phanerophyte REGENERATION PROCESSES : Sexual: Bigberry manzanita begins abundant sexual reproduction at approximately age 20 [19]. Fifty-nine percent of filled seed collected at widely separated locations was viable [31]. Fruit and seed production increases with age. Keeley and Keeley [29] found that 90-year-old bigberry manzanita stands in San Diego County yielded over 15 times more fruits than did 23-year-old stands. Soil-stored propagules* germinate following fire scarification of the stone [38]. One propagule usually outcompetes the others, resulting in establishment of one seedling per seed. Seedlings do not compete well with annuals or sprouting species [8,30] but generally establish in greater numbers than other obligate seeders. Its large seed apparently gives this species a competitive advantage over other obligate seeders [30]. Seedling mortality is high: most seedlings are outcompeted or die from summer drought. Surviving seedlings grow rapidly, and mortality of adult plants is extremely low until the next fire [13]. *Since several bigberry manzanita nutlets are fused into a single stone, some ecologists refer to the stones as "seed" and the individual nutlets as "propagules" [26]. The terms "seed" and "propagule" will be so used in this paper. Vegetative: Bigberry manzanita can reproduce by layering, although plants in coastal populations rarely do so because of their upright growth form [1,52]. Decumbent, desert-edge populations, however, reproduce primarily by layering; sexual reproduction in these populations is sparse [52]. Bigberry manzanita will grow epicormic sprouts following minor stem damage [43]. SITE CHARACTERISTICS : Bigberry manzanita grows in a mediterranean-type climate, with hot, dry summers and wet, mild winters. Santa Ana foehn winds blow over mountains from deserts in late summer and fall [15,40]. Bigberry manzanita grows in soils derived from granite, limestone, quartz diorite, or serpentine and that range in texture from sandy loam with considerable coarse fragment to loam [11,16,17,21,41,46]. Bigberry manzanita has no statistically significant association with aspect or degree of slope [13]. Populations in the Sierra San Pedro Martir are restricted to sites bordering water courses [37]. Bigberry manzanita grows at elevations below 4,500 feet (1,372 m) [39]. SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : Facultative Seral Species Bigberry manzanita colonizes from seed in postfire plant communities and remains a component of the community through climax [13]. SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : Flora primordia develop in late spring of the year prior to flowering. Bigberry manzanita flowers from mid-February to mid-March in chaparral and from mid-February to early April in pinyon-juniper woodlands. Plants flower sporadically after these times, but later flowers do not set fruit. Fruit ripens from late February to mid-May in chaparral and from late February through May in pinyon-juniper woodlands. Seeds are dispersed in late summer. Germination occurs from mid-March to mid-April following fire scarification of seed [1,9,26,52].

Related categories for Species: Arctostaphylos glauca | Bigberry Manzanita

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Information Courtesy: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. Fire Effects Information System

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